bakery_077_el.JPG The Parisian Bakery and Wonderbread factory close today. In mid-August, after a 75-year run, the Wonder Bread bakery here will shut its doors. Its parent company, Interstate Bakeries, filed for bankruptcy last fall and has already closed several operations around the country in a reorganization. The company's Parisian Bakery, also in San Francisco, has its last loaves in the oven too. Come Aug. 19, 650 Wonder and Parisian employees will be out of work in San Francisco, and the ranks of the blue-collar union crowd will have dwindled yet again.Event on bakery_077_el.JPG in San Francisco Eric Luse / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT

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Edween DeJesus, Foreman Wrapping & Loading, worked for the company for 29 years was across the street at the Bonzanza Restaurant after his last shift.
The Parisian Bakery and Wonderbread factory close today. In mid-August, after a 75-year run, the Wonder Bread bakery here will shut its doors. Its parent company, Interstate Bakeries, filed for bankruptcy last fall and has already closed several operations around the country in a reorganization. The company's Parisian Bakery, also in San Francisco, has its last loaves in the oven too. Come Aug. 19, 650 Wonder and Parisian employees will be out of work in San Francisco, and the ranks of the blue-collar union crowd will have dwindled yet again.Event on bakery_089_el.JPG in San Francisco Eric Luse / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT

The bankrupt Kansas City firm that owns three Bay Area bakeries killed one of the oldest names in San Francisco's sourdough French bread business Friday.

It was the last day for the Parisian sourdough bread bakery, which had been producing San Francisco's signature bread for 149 years.

"It's a sad day for the industry, a sad day for San Francisco, and a sad day for all those people losing their jobs," said Lou Giraudo, whose family owns the Boudin bakery chain and once owned Parisian. The family sold Parisian in 1993 to another firm, which later sold it to Interstate Bakeries.

Boudin's bakery, founded in 1849, is the oldest sourdough operation in the country, but Parisian, which first started baking sourdough bread based on a recipe from French bakers, was established in 1856, the year San Francisco's government was taken over by vigilantes.

"It is going to sound corny, but what I liked about Parisian bread was the San Francisconess of it," said Cor Sivertstol. "It was as San Francisco as the cable cars."

Other sourdough bread is fine, he said, but Parisian was simply the best. Sivertstol lives in Santa Cruz but always made a point of picking up a loaf or two when in the city on business.

It was business -- a troubled bakery chain, a tough market and old baking plants -- that killed the bread.

Interstate Bakeries, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year, is shutting down two San Francisco bakeries as part of a cost-cutting move, an effort "to right the ship," said Interstate Bakery spokesman Jason Booth. The second bakery, on Bryant Street near San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood, made Wonder Bread, Twinkies and Ho-Ho snack cakes. It also closed Friday. Interstate said neither plant was profitable.

Twinkies, a product noted for its sweetness, also had a role in San Francisco history. Former Supervisor Dan White claimed to have been on a sugar high induced by Twinkies when he fatally shot Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978. The so-called Twinkie Defense got White a lesser sentence and caused considerable outrage at the time.

Twinkies, Wonder Bread stay

Twinkies are not going away, but the people who baked and distributed them in San Francisco are. A total of 650 employees in San Francisco, all union members, lost their jobs Friday.

Wonder Bread and the snack products are not vanishing. They are national brands and will still be baked at Interstate's Oakland plant, but Parisian sourdough, which once boasted of an international reputation, is toast.

Parisian was one of the most visible of San Francisco sourdough brands. It was the bread served at many old-time San Francisco restaurants, including the 156-year-old Tadich Grill on California Street, the oldest restaurant in the West. Parisian also was featured at the Cliff House and at most Fisherman's Wharf restaurants. French bread with cracked crab produced a meal that, when washed down with California Chardonnay, was said to be the quintessential San Francisco dish.

John's Grill on Ellis Street, which is a mere 98 years old, served 100 loaves of Parisian sourdough a day.

Patrons of white tablecloth restaurants were not the only admirers of Parisian sourdough bread and rolls. Most of the customers at Parisian's bakery outlet on Evans Avenue, tucked away between Potrero Hill and the Bayview neighborhood, were Bayview residents who lined up Friday for a last loaf, or maybe some fresh rolls.

"I just cannot believe this is happening," said Dauwen Bailey, who is a custodian at a nearby City College campus. "I grew up with this bread. It tastes good, and I've always liked it."

"I give it to my kids," said Archie Huff, who lives near the bakery, "and I get some extra to give to the squirrels out by Candlestick Park. The kids like it, but the squirrels, they love it. You should see 'em."

Jose Ruiz said Parisian reminded him of when he was a kid, delivering the morning paper in Daly City. At the end of his route, he always stopped at a mom-and-pop store. He'd often arrive before it opened, and there, he said, in a big brown bag, fresh from the bakery, was the day's supply of French bread and sourdough rolls, always Parisian.

"You could get a roll for 8 cents, and for a quarter you could have a roll and a bag of chips, a whole meal," he said. Sometimes a little variety would do. "You could have salami on the roll, too. Oh, man."

A respected tradition

Ruiz said it was part of his youth, part of his life.

"It was back in an age when I thought everything and everything was possible," he said. "It turns out that life is what it is, but those rolls, that tradition of years ago, still reminds me. I think of Acme and Semifreddi and the other sourdough breads as new breads, but Parisian was tradition, and tradition is tradition."

As it turns out, Ruiz is a chef and knows his bread, and he came on the last day from South San Francisco to pay his respects.

Parisian's employees did not take the closing well. Many said Interstate had not run the business efficiently.

"They are white bread people in a French bread market," Boudin owner Giraudo said, and the laid-off workers agreed.

'It was all about numbers'

"It was the best French bread ever," said Edween de Jesus, who worked at Parisian for 29 years, the last 25 as a foreman. He described the pains the bakers took, how they used cool water, and varied the formula according to the humidity of the air. French bread, as fans know, varies depending on the weather; it is more sour on rainy or foggy days, less in warm weather.

"For Interstate," he said, "it was all about numbers, and this was a family operation, de Jesus said. "They will keep the Colombo brand, but it is a sweeter kind of sourdough, an Italian bread. Parisian was a French French bread."

It is not clear what will happen to the bakery's "mother starter," a piece of yeast that traditionally has been used from the previous day's bread to make the next loaves. The starter is considered to be the essence of the product, and Parisian's is said to have been around for all of the 149 years the bread was baked.

Parisian officials would not comment on the closure Friday. A reporter seeking comment was turned away.

The people in charge had nothing to say, the reporter was told.

"They said to tell you to have a nice day," said a manager who would not give her name.